Plants are very important living things. Life could not go on if there were no plants. This is because plants can make food from air, water and sunlight. Animals and man cannot make food from air, water and sunlight. Animals get their food by eating plants and other animals. Therefore animals and man need plants in order to live. This is why we find that there are so many plants around us.

If you look carefully at the plants around you, you will find that there are two kinds of plants: flowering plants and non-flowering(不开花的) plants.

Flowering plants can make seeds(种子). The seeds are protected by the fruits. Some fruits have one seed, some have two, three or four, and some have many seeds. But a few fruits have no seeds at all. An example of a fruit without seeds is the banana fruit.

Most non-flowering plants do not grow from seeds. They grow from spores(孢子). Spores are very, very small. Some spores are so small and light that they can float in the air. We may say that spores are quite the same as seeds. When these spores fall on wet and shady(阴凉的) places, they usually grow into new plants.

1.What fact does the passage lead you to believe?

A. Of all living things, animals are most important.              

B. Spores are seeds.

C. All fruits of flowering plants have seeds.                          

D. Without plants, man will die out.

2.The paragraph following the passage will be about ________.

A. how plants can make food from air                                   

B. how spores grow into new plants

C. why some plants have no seeds                      

D. why non-flowering plants are more important than flowering plants

3.This passage is most likely to be taken from ________.

A. a story book                                            B. a novel

C. a science magazine                                             D. a laboratory report

Do you live in a city? Do you know how cities began? Long long ago, the world had only a few thousand people. These people moved from one place to another. They moved over the land, hunting animals for food.
No one knows how or when these people learned about growing food. But when they did， their lives changed. They did not have to look for food any longer. They could stay in one place and grow it. People began to live near one another, so the first village was established. Many people came to work in the villages, and these villages became even larger.
When machines appeared, life in the villages changed again. People built factories. More and more people lived near the factories. The cities began.
Today, it’s strange that some people are moving back to small villages. Can you tell me why?
根据短文内容，判断正(T)误(F)。
【小题1】People moved from place to place to hunt animals.
【小题2】The story says,“No one knows how or when these people learned about growing food. But when they did, their lives changed.” In this sentence, the word “they” means people.
【小题3】 When machines appeared, life in the cities changed again.
【小题4】 All people like to live only in very big cities.
【小题5】 People built factories after the cities grew big.

Life for Cathy Taylor’s three children is very busy. Their school days are busy enough. After school, though, Cathy takes the two boys from football to basketball. Then she has to take her daughter to piano lessons. The tired children don’t get home until 7 pm. They have a quick supper, and it’s time for homework.
The Taylors are like many American and British parents. They take their children from activity to activity, and try to fit as much as possible into their kids’ lives. Doctors say many children are under too much pressure. Teachers complain(抱怨) about teaching tired kids in the classroom.
Most children take part in after-school clubs. Activities include sports, language learning, music and math classes. Pushy parents are nothing new, but now parents seem to push their children a lot more. Parents see other children doing a lot of things, and they feel their own children should do the same.
Linda Miller, a mother of three in London, knows all about such pressure. “In some families, competition starts from a very young age,” she says. “Mothers send their kids to all kinds of classes when they are very young. And they are always comparing them with other children. It’s crazy. People shouldn’t push their kids so hard.
Dr Alice Green agrees. She also says that these children may find it hard to think for themselves when they are older. “Parents are trying to plan their kids’ lives for them. When these kids are adults, they might find it difficult to plan things for themselves.” Parents should learn to give their kids a bit more time to themselves. On one hand, children need organized activities. On the other hand, they also need time and freedom to relax, and they need time to do things by themselves.
(   ) 8. Cathy Taylor sends her daughter to       .
A. math classes      B. language school B. sport club       D. piano lessons
(   ) 9. Why do teachers complain about teaching those children in the classroom?
A. Because they are very tired.     B. Because they know a lot of things.
C. Because they are under too much pressure. D. Because they can’t plan things for themselves.
(   ) 10. From the passage, we know children take part in after-school activities because       .
A. they have interest in them            B. their teachers tell them to do so
C. their parents push them to do so          D. they see other children doing these things
(  ) 11. The writer probably thinks that parents should       .
A. compare their children with others    B. plan their children’s lives for them
C. take their children to different classes  
D. give children time and let them do things by themselves

All living things on the earth need other living things to live. Nothing lives alone. Most animals must live in a group, and even a plant grows close together with others of the same kind. Sometimes one living thing kills another, one eats and the other is eaten. Each kind of life eats another kind of life in order to live, and together they create a food chain (链条). Some food chains are simple, while others are not. But all food chains begin with the sun, and all food chains become broken up if one of the links (链接) disappears.
All life needs sunlight to live on. But only plants can use sunlight directly. Plants are ‘factories’. They make food from sunlight, water and things in the soil (土壤) and air. Plants feed all other living things. Animals can only use the sun’s energy after it has been changed into food by plants. Some animals feed directly on plants, others eat smaller animals. Meat-eating animals are only eating plants indirectly.
What about humans? We are members of many food chains. We eat rice, vegetables, and fruits and so on. We also eat meat and drink milk. But we often break up the food chains. We kill wild animals and also make rivers, lakes and seas polluted. When these rivers, lakes and seas are polluted, the fish in them can not be eaten. If we eat the fish, we will get strange illnesses.
Each form of life is linked (关联的) to all others. Breaking the links puts all life in danger.
【小题1】Which living things can use the sun’s energy directly?

根据所给首字母提示，完成短文。

Once upon a time there lived in Germany two brothers named Jacob Grim and William Grim. They liked to listen to old stories and then wrote them down. Then they had enough stories to make a book. You can guess the n   1.   of their book! It is Grimms’ Fairy Tales (《格林童话》)

The story of this little book began when the brothers were still at school. And it started w   2.  a good teacher. This teacher liked to find out how things happened. S   3.   the two brothers were doing the same thing. They asked questions and then looked for a  4.   to them.

Among the q   5.    the brothers asked were. “Who made up the old fairy tales?” “Who first told about Cinderella (灰姑娘)?” “Who made up the story of Snow White and the story of Sleeping Beauty?”

They found that no one knew the answers to such questions. The tales were made up in very early times. Most of them were made up in days before people knew h  6.   to write. People told the stories to one another and to their children. But only few still r   7.   them. “When these old people die, the stories will d   8.   with them.” said the brothers. We must write d   9.   all the stories we can find.”

Jacob and William hunted for stories for five years. At last they had 89 tales. Just before Christmas in 1812 and first book was published.

People loved the book! They asked for more fairy stories. So the two brothers published two m 10.   books. In all, they collected 210 stories to put into their books.